Too politcally incorrect to judge Jessica harshly, isn't it? I mean, no matter what, she was a valiant soldier who suffered. Anybody bad in this story must be those who used her for PR and maybe those who mistreated her (if we can find them) while she was captive.
In her first public statements since her rescue in Iraq, Jessica Lynch criticized the military for exaggerating accounts of her rescue and re-casting her ordeal as a patriotic fable.
It does rather seem part of the publicity to enrich her, though. So, call me jaded, but I'm skeptical of the redemptive value of her comments.
After months of retreating from the news media, Ms. Lynch will be a ubiquitous presence next week. In addition to her appearance on ABC, she will be on the cover of Time magazine, and NBC will broadcast a movie based on an Iraqi's account of her ordeal. On Tuesday, the book publisher Knopf will release an account of her experience, "I Am a Soldier, Too," written with her cooperation by a former reporter for The New York Times, Rick Bragg. article
I still wonder why she couldn't find time to meet with the Iraqi lawyer who helped the military locate her. Maybe she didn't want to meet with him because his account and hers don't jibe. Maybe because he also has a book out. She simply said at the time that she was too busy, and let the rest of the town fete the man.
Jeff Coplon, who helped Mr. Rehaief (the lawyer) write his book, "Because Each Life is Precious," said it was possible that both he and Ms. Lynch were telling the truth in their divergent accounts.
"One of the questions that could arise in the wake of this kind of trauma is that someone could believe they remember everything and their memory could still be incomplete," Mr. Coplon said.
And isn't that just convenient for everybody.
Friday, November 07, 2003
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